[b]New Concordia- Outskirts of Armistice near Syshin encampment "Amber Horizon"[/b]

"These fuckers must be delusional if they think every goddamn resident is going to roll over and give up their goods," chuffed Min Ho 'Demeter' Park. He nudged a corpse with his boot, checking to make certain the Gid wasn't only feigning death, before kicking it off the stone path leading up to his residence. Min Ho frowned. Blood had pooled under the body and left a deep red stain that he knew had soaked into his aesthetically pleasing yet simple design for the passageway to his front door. "Son of a..."

"For what it's worth I think they got the message," Oanh Park replied. They were communicating through old-fashioned earpieces on a frequency experience taught them was never used. Having outdated equipment was a faux pas by the standards of nobility but neither of the Parks were born into prestige. Practical and paranoid the couple had made their humble abode, which looked firmly middle-class and quaint but unremarkable, into a veritable fortress. A rebellion had not been something they had anticipated but they were nonetheless prepared. Looters had targeted the Parks simply because it looked like an easy target but had been gunned down before they made it to the front steps.

"That's what you said yesterday," Min Ho quietly fumed. He wasn't angry with his wife; she hadn't done anything to raise his ire. If he squinted the tip of her rifle from where he stood. She was laying flat on their angled roofing armed with a beast of a weapon almost as large as she was. Her precision with it belied extensive sharpshooting training.

"We should bury the corpses before lunch," Oanh instructed. Clearly she was not volunteering for the heavy lifting. "Solae Falia survived the attack on the Imperial Embassy apparently," she added casually as she stood up from her position. "There's a bounty on her head."

"Of course there is. What are you suggesting, Oanh?" Even before he asked he knew what she'd say. Min Ho walked towards a female corpse at the edge of his property and hauled her up on his shoulder with a grunt. Burying the bodies was not so much a sign of respect as it was an attempt to not encourage acts of vengeance. If no one knew where their precious Gid friend was they wouldn't bother the Parks.

"I'm suggesting that your retirement is fucked," Oanh said as she dropped onto their balcony and opened the door to go inside. "But it's still your retirement, fucked or not. I'll let you know when lunch is ready."

Min Ho Park was living on New Concordia under the alias Hyun Tae Young. No one still living on the planet was aware of his past. As a young man and for most of his adult life he had a very successful career as a covert agent for the Stellar Empire; in short he was a government-endorsed assassin. Officially there were denials that there was any branch of the military that would kill without provocation or a declaration of war but that was not the truth. As was standard procedure he was allowed to retire to any non-central planet, preferably one without former comrades, given an alias and fabricated history, and left to pasture. Min Ho had enjoyed gardening and studying ancient history in relative peace. Only current military with the highest clearance could find his actual personnel records and even then because he was officially retired he had to do fuck all to help the Stellar Empire. He had paid his dues. As long as he wasn't aiding and abetting the enemy they could not lob wild accusations at him once this whole thing blew over.

"How old is she?" Min Ho asked as he chucked the dead woman into a ditch before ambling towards the man that had stained his stone walkway.

"Young enough to be your daughter," Oanh replied.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Min Ho swore. When night fell he was going to have to dig through his armory (which was almost as large as the first floor of their home but kept in the basement for security reasons) and find his old camouflage suit. He might be past his prime by a few decades but he still had a conscience, especially for people that were put into shitty circumstances completely beyond his control. Maybe if he found and helped this Solae Falia they'd let him move somewhere without a power-hungry duke.